In mathematics, a Dedekind cut, named after Richard Dedekind, is a partition of the rational numbers into two non-empty parts A and B, such that all elements of A are less than all elements of B, and A contains no greatest element. The cut itself is, conceptually, the "gap" defined between A and B. In other words, A contains every rational number less than the cut, and B contains every rational number greater than the cut. The cut itself is in neither set.

More generally, a Dedekind cut is a partition of a totally ordered set into two non-empty parts, (A, B), such that A is closed downwards (meaning that for all a in A, x ≤ a implies that x is in A as well) and B is closed upwards, and A contains no greatest element. See also completeness (order theory).

The Dedekind cut resolves the contradiction between the continuous nature of the number linecontinuum and the discrete nature of the numbers themselves. Wherever a cut occurs and it is not on a real rational number, an irrational number (which is also a real number) is created by the mathematician. Through the use of this device, there is considered to be a real number, either rational or irrational, at every point on the number line continuum, with no discontinuity.

Dedekind used the ambiguous word cut (Schnitt) in the geometric sense. That is, it is an intersection of a line with another line that crosses it. It is not a gap. When one line crosses another in geometry, it is said to cut that line. In this case, one of the lines is the number line. Both lines have one point in common. At that one point on the number line, if there is no rational number, the mathematician posits or arbitrarily places an irrational number. This results in the positioning of a real number at every point on the continuum.

Handling Dedekind cuts

It is more symmetrical to use the (A,B) notation for Dedekind cuts, but each of A and B does determine the other. It can be a simplification, in terms of notation if nothing more, to concentrate on one 'half' — say, the lower one — and call any downward closed set A without greatest element a "Dedekind cut".